MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU) Seminar Series

Title: Mendelian randomization in the longitudinal HUNT Study, Norway

Abstract: In the HUNT Study, all adult inhabitants of Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway, have been invited to health surveys every decade since the 1980s. The HUNT Study includes questionnaires, clinical measurements and sampling of biological material. DNA, serum, plasma, vital cells, RNA, urine, saliva and fecal samples are stored in the HUNT Biobank, and ~70,000 participants of the HUNT2 (1995-97) and HUNT3 (2006-08) surveys have been genotyped using Illumina HumanCoreExome arrays. The HUNT data have been linked to diagnostic codes from local hospitals and general practitioners and to information from national health registries including the Medical Birth Registry of Norway, the Cancer Registry of Norway, the Cause of Death Registry, and the Norwegian Prescription Database. This seminar will present the available data and opportunities for Mendelian randomization analyses in HUNT.

Biography: Kristian Hveem, MD PhD, is a Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and leader of the HUNT Biobank and the K.G. Jebsen Center for Genetic Epidemiology at NTNU, Trondheim. He is responsible for the GWAS group at the Jebsen Center and his main research areas are cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disease and cancer. Bjørn Olav Åsvold, MD PhD, is a Professor of Epidemiology at the HUNT Research Center and the K.G. Jebsen Center for Genetic Epidemiology, and a Consultant Endocrinologist at St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital. He leads the Mendelian randomization group at the Jebsen Center. His main research areas include endocrine and cardiovascular epidemiology.

All welcome